Even Superman (Dean Cain) can’t get on board with the tone of ‘Batman v Superman’

Being Superman is an exclusive club. Since the character”s inception, only nine actors have portrayed the Man of Steel in live-action. If you add in the voice actors, the number jumps to 21. Dean Cain is one of the elite few, playing Superman from 1993-1997 on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. As one of the few men qualified to speak to the inner workings of Superman”s psyche, THR couldn”t help but ask if Cain had seen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

WARNING: GIANT SPOILER FOR THE ENDING OF BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE BEYOND THIS POINT.

It turned out that BvS was part of Cain”s Easter weekend. The former Superman (and current dad to Kara on Supergirl) took his fifteen-year-old son to see the latest incarnation of Kal-El. Things didn”t go great.

My son hated it because Superman died. It made me very happy that he took it so personally and that he has such a strong connection to the character (laughs). The movie obviously was so well made; the effects were incredible. It was too long, though, and I admit, I dozed off a tiny bit, but maybe that's because I was tired after a lot of traveling. Ben was great as Batman and Henry is a very good Superman. This incarnation is so dark compared to the lightness of the Superman I've grown to know and love, as seen in the two versions that I grew up with – Christopher Reeve and myself. That's the only difference to me. [This movie] inhabits a dark world and Superman is such an alien in that world.

Cain went on to praise Henry Cavill”s physical look as Superman, as well as the Man of Steel version of the super suit. Taking a page from his character”s loyalty, the actor declared Amy Adams to be a good Lois Lane but that the finest version of Lois would always be his co-star Teri Hatcher. Awwww. But he was left perplexed by Snyder”s take on the perennial Boy Scout:

“Whenever I played him, I played Superman as if I had a secret that nobody else knew. That secret is that you could always win. It seemed that Superman didn't have that in this film.”

Maybe the Man of Steel can find some of that hope and optimism for the next installment.